“They’ve managed to get away from the palace,” Mercedes said. “They’ve run for the back garden to escape into the forest, and the dragons have stalled the Fate Maker’s army here. Now we need to go. Before you and the precious relic you’re willing to risk all our lives for are captured.”
Before I could say anything, Winston launched himself into the air and raced toward the dragon stronghold at Dramera. Once we’d cleared the palace walls I tucked the crown case into my tunic, keeping it safe against my chest. Then I looked back, watching as the dragons bathed my palace in flames.
Stunned, I watched as three very large, SUV-sized black birds burst out of the fire, racing toward us. Those definitely weren’t part of my army.
Chapter Fourteen
“What in the name of Esmeralda and corn flakes are those things?” Mercedes yelled as she looked back at the bird trailing behind us, screeching at the top of its lungs.
“They’re ravens,” Kitsuna said. “Now keep your head down so that they can’t aim for you.”
“Those monsters are not ravens,” Mercedes said. “Ravens are ugly black birds that perch on desks next to Edgar Allan Poe and yell ‘nevermore’ all day long. They aren’t monstrous killers with beaks the size of New Jersey.”
“Yeah?” Kitsuna reached for the knives she had stuck in her belt and threw one at the ravens. “Well, we grow them a bit bigger here. If I were you I’d use that bow you’ve got strapped to your back. It’s not just for decoration.”
I threw the knife that was nestled in my own sword belt at the bird, missing it completely. Mercedes had managed to free the small, curvy dryad bow she’d been training with and was loading an arrow into it.
“Keep your head down,” Kitsuna shrieked as Mercedes let the arrow fly. A loud, angry shriek preceded the sound of breaking branches as something big fell out of the sky.
Winston flew into a deep dive, throwing me forward. I grabbed his neck with my arms and dug my heels into his sides, scrunching my eyes shut and trying not to scream as he hurtled toward the ground.
“Don’t crash,” I howled, my eyes still closed. “Please, please, please don’t crash.”
He leveled off, and I opened my eyes, staring in horror at the ground not so far below me. I heard another dull thwap and then a shriek, and glanced behind me to see that the other two dragons had managed the same maneuver.
“Is everyone—”
“Duck!” Mercedes yelled.
I looked up to see the two trees we were speeding toward. There was no way we’d make it through the narrow space between them. On instinct I tightened my grip on Winston’s neck and tried my best not to wet myself.
“Lento!” Mercedes screeched, her voice high and panicky.
Winston flipped sideways, and the trees leaned away from us. We zipped between them, leaves slapping me in the face and twigs tangling in my hair as we brushed past the branches.
I squeezed my eyes shut again and decided to keep them that way until we were back on land. Screw being some sort of heroic warrior queen—I wasn’t cut out for this level of excitement.
“Redito!” Mercedes yelled.
I heard the snap of branches and the groan of trees moving just before a loud squawk pierced the air, followed by the boom of a large object crashing into the thick foliage.
I loosened my hold on Winston to draw my sword and looked over my shoulder for the ravens. Behind us, inky feathers filled the gap between the two trees. Obviously our little friends hadn’t made it through in time. Oops.
Winston shifted upward, taking us out of the trees, and I quickly sheathed my sword before holding tight once more as we burst out of the forest and into the blue sky. When we leveled off I let go of his neck and turned, trying to see my palace as it shrank from sight.
Everywhere I looked blackness filled the air. Plumes of fire and smoke had turned the remaining forests around my palace into huge bonfires. Even if we made it back to the palace grounds there would be little left to save.
The dragons flew faster and the sky darkened as we moved farther west, away from the people I’d sworn to protect. When I thought we’d never stop flying, that we’d keep going until we reached the edge of the world itself, we went even farther. Later we circled back, and I realized that we’d been traveling around Dramera Lake, close to the main village of the dragon clans, keeping to the air as the dragons determined whether or not we were safe.
Winston tilted his body forward, and all three dragons glided to a graceful stop in the middle of the large, cobblestoned town square. Surrounding us were tall, narrow houses, each of them covered in tidy straw roofs.
I slid off his back and felt for the crown case, still safely nestled inside my tunic. “What do we do now?” I asked. “We’re here, our army is there.”
The other two dragons let Kitsuna and Mercedes off, then followed Winston back up into the air, probably to find somewhere to shift back to their human forms.
“Take me back!” I yelled after him.
“No,” Kitsuna snapped.
I shot her a glare. “I need to go back. My people are dying there.”
“And we’re needed here,” Kitsuna said. “You’re needed here.”
“Why? What are we supposed to do here? Away from the fighting?”
“We hide, and we hope that no one from the Fate Maker’s army manages to arrive before our own soldiers do,” Kitsuna said.
“Who could have followed us here?” Mercedes asked.
A loud squawk sounded behind us, and I turned to see an enormous, angry, black raven that was missing half its feathers coming straight at us. Again.
“Them.” I pointed.
Mercedes stared at the bird. “I thought we killed them already?”
Kitsuna grabbed my arm to pull me away, and I watched, horrified, as the dragons who had taken off a moment before raced across the sky, flames erupting from their mouths like giant, flying volcanoes.
The raven managed to get over Dramera Lake and swooped toward the ground. A man slipped from the bird’s shoulders, and once the rider was free, the beast arched itself up to its full height, wings beating ominously as it let out a loud squawk and then hurled itself at Winston, Ardere, and Kitsuna’s mother. Winston roared and shot forward, driving his head into the raven’s stomach, and launched them both toward the lake. The other two dragons moved upward, circling above them as if searching for other attackers in the sky.
Winston reared up, dragging the raven upward in his claws, and then did the dragon version of a body slam into the raven’s stomach, driving it down onto the banks of the lake. The bird skipped across the ground like a large stone and both the bird and the dragon plunged into the water, still swiping at each other.
“Come on.” Kitsuna tugged urgently on my hand, and we both backed away from the square.
“What about Winston?”
“He can take care of himself,” Kitsuna said. “We need to warn the others.”
A burst of magic exploded in front of me, enveloping the spot where Winston had disappeared in brilliant blue-black flames.
I froze. “Oh no.”
“Allie, come on,” Mercedes shrieked.
“Wizard.” Kitsuna pulled my arm and dragged me through the winding streets of Dramera at a flat-out sprint, one of my arms cradled over my chest as I tried to keep from dropping the box with my crown and the Dragon’s Tear tucked inside my shirt. “Now come on!”
“Wizard?” Mercedes asked as she ran behind us, already wheezing. “Of course it’s a wizard. What else would it be?”
“Wizards ride on the backs of ravens. They use the birds to go into battle when they want to fight,” Kitsuna said, still breathing fine and not slowing in the slightest. “Then they let the stupid birds eat the bodies of the dead—and the not-so-dead, if the mood takes them.”